Reclining chairs have been popular for many years and numerous patents have been granted on linkages especially designed to support a chair seat and back, and frequently a foot rest, upon a chair frame for movement between a normal upright position and a reclined position. Subsequent developments in this field have provided such chairs with the capability of being rocked -- essentially by mounting the original reclining chair upon a separate base unit for rocking movement.
One of the drawbacks of such chairs is the fact that they are almost invariably of bulky construction, the bulk being necessitated by constructions which accommodate and at the same time largely conceal the reclining linkage. A further drawback arose because of the necessity to provide sufficient clearance behind the chair for reclining movement of the chair back. The rearward movement of the upper portion of the chair back during reclining movement required the chair to be located at least a minimum distance of about one foot from the nearest wall. This requirement, combined with the normal bulk of the chair, posed problems in furniture arrangement.
In recent years, the industry has developed what is generally referred to as in against-the-wall type reclining unit in which the chair seat is shifted forwardly on the frame as the chair is reclined so that the upper portion of the chair back does not move rearwardly as the chair is reclined. In such units, the chair seat is normally mounted for rolling movement forwardly on the chair base and is driven in forward movement by means of a so-called translation linkage. The translation linkage is coupled to and actuated by the reclining linkage to drive the chair frame forwardly on the base as the chair is reclined.
However, prior to the present invention, such against-the-wall type units have not had any capability of rocking, because the translation linkage necessary to eliminate the wall clearance problems has inherently prevented rocking of the chair unit upon its base.
The present invention is especially designed to provide a rockable against-the-wall type reclining chair of a minimum height.